Learn How to Pronounce cosh, sinh, and Gradient Symbols Easily

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the pronunciation of mathematical symbols, specifically "cosh," "sinh," and the gradient symbol (nabla). Participants explore various names and pronunciations used in different contexts, including hyperbolic functions and operators in calculus.

Discussion Character

  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest that "cosh" and "sinh" are pronounced as "cosine hyperbolic" and "sine hyperbolic," respectively.
  • Others mention that "sinch" is a common pronunciation for "sinh," while "grad" or "del" are used for the gradient operator, with "nabla" being the technical term.
  • A participant recalls their instructor referring to "sinh" as "sinus hyperbolicus," indicating variations in terminology across languages.
  • Another participant expresses uncertainty about the term "backward difference operator," suggesting it may vary in usage across different fields of mathematics.
  • Discussion includes a reference to the forward and backward difference operators and their roles in calculus, though the terminology remains contested.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the pronunciation of the terms, with multiple competing views and variations in terminology presented throughout the discussion.

Contextual Notes

Some terms and pronunciations may depend on regional or educational differences, and there is uncertainty regarding the naming conventions of mathematical operators.

chrisych
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Can anyone tell me how to pronounce the following symbols?

cosh, sinh and the gradient (the up-side-down delta).

hyperbola cosine? hyperbola sine? gradient?
 
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Full names would be Hyperbolic Cosine, Hyperbolic Sine, and the backward difference operator.
 
The pronuciations "cosh" and "sinch" are commonly used. (In my Freshman calculus class the instructor said "sinus hyperbolicus"!)

The gradient operator (not the "backward difference operator") is commonly pronounced "grad" or "del" (that's more general, for example [itex]\nabla f[/itex] is "grad f" or "del f" while [itex]\nabla \cdot \vec{f}[/itex] is "div f" or "del dot f" and [itex]\nabla \times \vec{f}[/itex] is "curl f" or "del cross f" . Technically, it's a "nabla". In order to get that symbol in the tex above, I used "\nabla".
 
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I was taught 'cosh' and 'shine'. (If you're wondering, hyperbolic tangent was 'than' :biggrin:)
 
"Sinus hyperbolicus" is what I call it too, but not in English :smile:

HallsofIvy said:
[...][itex]\nabla X \vec{f}[/itex] is "curl f" or "del cross f" . Technically, it's a "nabla". In order to get that symbol in the tex above, I used "\nabla".

Now if only you have used "\times" to get the cross symbol ... :-p
 
Nabla! Thats great. A hebrew word for a type of harp or so I wiki.

When I read words to myself "cosh" and "sinh"
I SAY "Cosine" and then THINK "hyperbolic";
same with the Sin(h). Its weird.
I never actually used them in a sentence when alone. If talking ot someone else I say hyperbolic sine.
 
...

CompuChip said:
"Sinus hyperbolicus" is what I call it too, but not in English :smile:

Are you from Romania?
 
HallsofIvy said:
The gradient operator (not the "backward difference operator") is commonly pronounced "grad" or "del" ...

Sorry Halls, I actually have no personal experience with this what so ever (although I have many times manually just applied [itex]f(x)-f(x-1)[/itex] ), so this was somewhat new to me.

However extremely coincidentally, in my thread "How Good Am I?" (which I am sad you don't participate in :( ), yip just introduced to us an operator like that in one of his questions, and also in "Klaus_Hoffman"'s thread about the n-th difference of a function, lurflurf posted a link on wikipedia about Newton Series. When you press his link, it re directs to the article for the Difference Operator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_operator) and it was over there where I got the name "backward difference Operator" :( Perhaps it is called different things in different fields of mathematics? Or a less common name this is?

In mathematics, a difference operator maps a function, f(x), to another function, f(x + a) − f(x + b).

The forward difference operator

[tex]\Delta f(x)=f(x+1)-f(x)[/tex]

occurs frequently in the calculus of finite differences, where it plays a role formally similar to that of the derivative, but used in discrete circumstances. Difference equations can often be solved with techniques very similar to those for solving differential equations. Analogously we can have the backward difference operator

[tex]\nabla f(x)=f(x)-f(x-1)[/tex]

When restricted to polynomial functions f, the forward difference operator is a delta operator, i.e., a shift-equivariant linear operator on polynomials that reduces degree by 1.
 
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GoldPheonix said:
Are you from Romania?
Are you? :-p

Nope, I'm from the land of tulips and clogs - I mean, [/color] 't Hooft and van der Waals :smile:

Why does [strike]...[/strike] not work?[/size]
 

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